The Wi-Fi only Vita will hold a price tag of $250 while the 3G(AT&T)/Wi-Fi model will run $300

At the E3 Expo in June of this year, Sony announced its newest upcoming portable, PlayStation Vita. For those of you who have been waiting to get your hands on one, Vita will be available to purchase in February 2012.

PS Vita offers social networking apps called "Party" and "Near," which allow users organize friend lists, discuss what you're doing online, and reveal where you are (much like Facebook's "Check-in").

A total of 26 games will be available on launch day, and another 100 are currently in production. A few games that Sony announced at E3 were "LittleBigPlanet," "Uncharted: Golden Abyss," and "Street Fighter X Tekken."

In addition, a new feature on Vita allows gamers to save their game on the portable system using "cloud saving," which can then be resumed on the PS3.

The Wi-Fi only Vita will hold a price tag of $250 while the 3G(AT&T)/Wi-Fi model will run $300. It will hit stores in Japan on December 17, 2011, and arrive in North America on February 22, 2012.

Many are wondering how well the Vita will be received, considering the Nintendo 3DS, which offers 3D features, was initially introduced with a $249.99 price tag and didn't sell so well. Nintendo decided to slash the 3DS' price to $169.99 only four months after its release.

Didn't notice the game price comment. $5-$10 is simply not feasible for games of PS3 style and quality (what Sony is shooting for on this system). Everyone thinks that the cost of making games has gone down because of the artificially deflated prices on iOS and Android markets. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consumers demand more and more, better graphics, bigger worlds, more immersive gameplay, all of which require more designers, engineers, artsts who all have to be paid (unless you're an iOS/Android dev at a small startup, then you're likely to be working for next to nothing on the hopes of scoring a "hit").

Development costs for the highest tier games has already reached $100 million, and for the most part, the "hardcore" games market is way smaller in numbers than the casual games market or the movie industry. You are asking to pay say $5 for a game that now costs $50. Is this possible? In order for the company to make the same profit (if any) at that price, they need to sell 10X more copies of that game. Is that feasible? To sell 10X more games, you either need to market it a whole lot harder (cost of marketing), or have a much much bigger userbase. The phone has not even launched yet. They have no userbase, but very likely they are not predicting they'll get anywhere near 100m users any time soon if ever with the device.

Movies cost $300M and you can watch one for $10 at the theater and they still make profit. The day as many people buy games on a weekly basis as go to the theater, then your wish will come true. Until then, it remains just that. Wishful thinking.